WO2006103777A1 - Structured data conversion method - Google Patents

Abstract

A structured data conversion device includes: an inverse conversion information generation unit which assumes that first structured data is converted into second structured data described by a language different from the first structured data and extracts data deleted when converting the first structured data into the second structured data and required when inverse-converting the converted second structured data into the first structured data, as inverse conversion information, from the first structured data; and an inverse conversion information storage unit for embedding the inverse conversion information into the second structured data when converting the first structured data into the second structured data.

Description

 Specification

 Structured data conversion method

 Technical field

 [0001] The present invention relates to a technique for converting structured data into structured data of another format, and more particularly, to a technique for converting structured data in consideration of reconversion.

 Background art

 [0002] In recent years, various types of systems such as individuals, companies, and local governments are connected via the Internet, and Web services, EDI, and EC are being performed in cooperation. For this reason, a wide range of information exchange is required, and XML (extensible Markup Language) power is used for data exchange and data processing. It has a flexible expression ability to structure data and is suitable for computer processing. Is attracting attention as a format.

 [0003] In order to facilitate the use of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which was standardized by ISO in 1986, on the Internet, XML has its basic specification XML1.0 as W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in February 1998. ).

 [0004] HTML (HyperText Markup Language), a Web page creation language, has a fixed tag and is specialized for display, and cannot meet the requirement to process information on a computer based on tag information was there. In contrast, XML has a language structure that allows users to freely define tags and give meaning to character strings in data, and is suitable for information processing on computers.

 [0005] Currently, XML is becoming widespread, and is used particularly in cooperation between server systems.

XML data has a format that can flexibly describe hierarchical structured data, and has the advantage of being easy to process data such as searching and processing mechanically by a program. On the other hand, unlike HTML for describing the display style, it cannot be displayed easily by humans. For this reason, various data processing is performed on the server using XML data, which is converted to HTML data and passed to the client PC. On the PC, the HTML data is generally displayed on a web browser.

 [0006] For converting XML data to HTML data, standard XML conversion technology such as XSLT is widely used.

 For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique that discloses a technique for converting structural data.

 [0007] In the system for providing information indicating the delivery status of home delivery disclosed in Patent Document 1, in order to be able to confirm the delivery status even if the search condition is unknown, the information provider and the user terminal An intermediary device is provided between them, and when the data is exchanged between the mediation device and the information provider's information provision device, conversion to HTML power XML and conversion from XML to HTML are performed.

 [0008] In addition, Patent Document 2 discloses a conversion in which an attribute value indicating an index and depth is added to XML data so that the original structure data can be reconstructed after editing processing such as sorting or partial cutout. The point which performs is disclosed.

 [0009] Along with the widespread use of structured data such as XML and HTML as described above, the data obtained as HTML and simply displayed on a Web browser is acquired as XML data on the client PC. There is a growing need for users to process various data.

 [0010] FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b) show the methods currently used to use the same data for both display and information processing.

 The method in (a) in the figure is a method in which both the original XML data and the HTML data generated by converting this XML data for display are held on the Web server and made public to the user.

[0011] This method necessitates double management of two files, XML data and HTML data, on the Web server, which increases maintenance costs.

 In addition, the user must receive both HTML data and XML data, which requires two communications, and the response drops accordingly.

[0012] The method shown in Fig. 1 (b) uses HT when generating XML data by converting XML data.

The entire XML data is included in the ML data, and this HTML data on the user side Extracts XML data and performs information processing.

[0013] Unlike the method shown in Fig. 1 (a), this method differs from the above in that the file managed by the Web server is only one HTML data file. This HTML data contains the entire XML data, The size is larger than the sum of both HTML data and XML data.

 [0014] Further, the user side needs time and effort to extract the embedded XML data.

 Another method is reverse conversion from HTML to XML.

[0015] To achieve this with minimal system changes, in addition to XML → HTML conversion, HT

It should be possible to perform reverse conversion from ML to XML. However, conventional conversion technologies such as XSLT cannot do this for the following reasons.

[0016] XML can freely define the structure and meaning of data, and this information is important for various data processing. However, HTML describes the display style, and that information (the relationship between XML tags and values) cannot be described. Therefore, conversion from HTML to XML cannot be realized because important information is missing.

[0017] Based on the above points, the present invention has an object to provide a structured data conversion apparatus capable of performing conversion from XML to HTML that enables reverse conversion to HTML power XML. To do.

 [0018] In addition, with this reverse conversion, it is an object to provide a structured data conversion apparatus that can perform conversion from XML to HTML that enables reverse conversion to XML that can completely reproduce the original XML data. To do.

 Patent Document 1: JP 2002-128232 A

 Patent Document 2: JP 2004-62600 A

 Disclosure of the invention

[0019] The structured data conversion apparatus according to the present invention is based on the premise that the first structured data is converted into the second structured data described in a language different from the first structured data. In order to solve the above problems, an inverse transformation information generation unit and an inverse transformation information storage unit are provided. [0020] The inverse conversion information generation unit is deleted when converting the first structured data into the second structured data, and the converted second structured data is converted into the first structured data. Data necessary for reverse conversion is extracted from the first structured data as reverse conversion information.

 The inverse transformation information storage unit incorporates the inverse transformation information into the second structured data when converting the first structured data into the second structured data.

 With this configuration, the first structured data before conversion can be reproduced using the inverse conversion information in the second structure data after conversion.

[0022] The information processing apparatus further includes an inverse conversion unit that inversely converts the second structured data into the first structure data using the inverse conversion information embedded in the second structure data. You can also

[0023] With this configuration, it is possible to perform inverse conversion from the converted second structured data to the first structured data.

 Further, the inverse transformation information storage unit may be configured to include the inverse transformation information in a form that does not affect the appearance when the second structured data after conversion is displayed on a Web browser. I can do it.

 As an embedding method, for example, when the second structured data is in HTML, it is embedded in an anchor tag or a comment tag.

 As a result, the influence of the inverse transformation information on the display of the second structured data can be eliminated.

 [0025] Further, when the first structured data includes a repetitive structure, the reverse conversion information generation unit generates the reverse conversion information for the entire repetitive structure, and the reverse conversion information storage unit A configuration can be adopted in which conversion information is loaded corresponding to the entire repetitive structure.

 [0026] With this configuration, when the first structured data has a repetitive structure, the inverse transform data can be embedded more efficiently.

Furthermore, it may be configured to further include a partial reverse conversion unit that reversely converts a part of the first structured data from the second structured data based on an instruction from the user. [0027] With this configuration, when performing inverse transformation, only a part designated by the user can be inversely transformed.

 The second structured data converted from the first structure data may further include a search unit that performs a search based on a search condition of a user force.

[0028] With this configuration, it is possible to perform a search process on the converted second structure data.

 Further, the inverse transformation information is information required at a minimum when inversely transforming the second structured data into the first structured data, for example, a tag of the tag in the first structured data It can be configured as information indicating the correspondence between names and tags and element contents.

[0029] With this configuration, the size of the inverse transform information to be embedded can be minimized.

 In addition, the present invention includes not only a structural data conversion device but also a structured data conversion method, program and storage medium.

 Brief Description of Drawings

 [0030] [Fig. L] (a) and (b) are diagrams showing a method currently used to use the same data for both display and information processing. It is a figure which shows the system by embodiment.

 FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a structure-rich data conversion device in the present embodiment.

 FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of structured document conversion performed by the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment.

 FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation process at the time of conversion processing from XML data to HTML data performed by a conversion processing unit.

 [Fig. 5] (a) is a diagram showing an example of an item name table, (b) is a diagram showing an example of an item value table, (c) is a diagram showing an example of an HTML style specification 222 expanded in memory, ( FIG. 4D shows an example of an HTML style in which this replacement is performed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing an example of an XML memory structure. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation process during reverse conversion processing from HTML data to XML data performed by the reverse conversion processing unit.

 FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of conversion by the structured data conversion device when the conversion source structured document has a repeated structure.

 FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of conversion when a conversion source structured document includes a repetitive structure.

 FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing when a conversion source structured document has a repetitive format and this is converted into a tabular structured document.

 [Fig. 11] (a) is an example of item name table, (b) is an example of item table value, (c) is an example of HTML style specification expanded on memory, (d ) Is a diagram showing an example of the generated anchor tag, and (e) is a diagram showing an example of HTML description.

 FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a process in the case where the structured document converted in the table format by the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment is reverse-converted by the reverse-conversion processing unit.

 FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a partial inverse transform process.

 FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing partial reverse conversion processing by the partial reverse conversion processing unit.

 FIGS. 15A and 15B are explanatory diagrams of search processing according to the present embodiment.

 FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing search processing performed by a search processing unit.

 [Fig.17] A diagram showing an example of reverse conversion information embedded in an HTML comment tag

FIG. 18 is a computer system environment diagram.

 FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of a medium.

 BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

 Fig. 1 (c) shows the HT of XML data by the structure data converter in this embodiment.

It is a figure which shows conversion to ML data.

In the structured data conversion apparatus of this embodiment, when converting XML data to HTML data, information necessary for re-converting to XML data that would otherwise be lost during HTML conversion (hereinafter referred to as reverse conversion) Information) is efficiently embedded in HTML data.

[0033] As a result, compared to embedding the entire original XML data as shown in FIG. It is possible to prevent the data size after conversion from increasing. Note that this reverse conversion information is information indicating the correspondence between the tag name and element contents that are required at the time of reverse conversion. Therefore, even if this information is embedded in the conversion result, the size of the converted data is not significantly affected.

 FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the structured data conversion apparatus according to this embodiment.

 In FIG. 1, the structured data conversion device 1 includes a conversion processing unit 11, an inverse conversion processing unit 12, a partial reverse conversion processing unit 13, and a search processing unit 14.

 The conversion processing unit 11 reads the conversion source XML data 2 and the conversion definition 3 to be converted, and converts the conversion source XML data 2 into HTML data 4 based on the conversion definition 3. The reverse conversion information 41 is included in the HTML data 4 that is the conversion result of the conversion processing unit 11. The reverse conversion processing unit 12 performs reverse conversion of the HTML data 4 to the XML data 2, and generates HTML data 4 power XML data 2 using the reverse conversion information in the HTML data 4. The partial reverse conversion processing unit 13 performs reverse conversion on a part of the HTML data 4 generated by the conversion processing unit 11 to generate partial XML data 6 of the conversion source XML data 2. The generation of the partial XML data 6 by the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13 is also performed using the reverse conversion information 41. The search processing unit 14 performs a search on the HTML data 4 that is the conversion result by the conversion processing unit 11 based on the search condition 5 and outputs a search result 7. Since the HTML data 4 generated by the conversion processing unit 11 has the reverse conversion information 41 inside, it can be searched like XML data. Details of this point will be described later.

 Note that the structured data conversion apparatus according to the present embodiment has only a configuration including all of the conversion processing unit 11, the inverse conversion processing unit 12, the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13, and the search processing unit 14 as its components. Instead, it can be realized as a configuration including only a part thereof, for example, only the conversion processing unit 11 or only the conversion processing unit 11 and the inverse conversion processing unit 12.

 FIG. 3 shows an example of structured document conversion performed by the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment. The figure shows an example of converting XML data to HTML data.

In the figure, in the XML data 21 that is the conversion source, the tag name (element name) of <Product information>, <Product name>, <Price>, and <Type name> is used as information in addition to the element content that is data. Wait The relationship between these tags and element content is usually lost when converted to HTML data.

 [0038] When converting this XML data 21 into HTML data 23, the conversion processing unit 11 reads information that is normally lost, such as the tag name and the relationship between the tag and the element content, based on the instruction by the conversion definition 22. Then, the information is converted into reverse conversion information, and information necessary for reconversion at this time is included in the HTML data 23.

 In FIG. 3, conversion definition 22 specifies item definition 221 and HTML style specification 222, of which item definition 221 is the position in the hierarchical structure for each element in target XML data 21. Is specified. For example, the product information> product information> product name> in the lower hierarchy is specified as item 1 in the item definition 221. The HTML style specification 222 specifies the structure of the converted HTML data 23.

[0040] The conversion processing unit 11 obtains information on the position of each element constituting the XML data 21 to be converted from the item definition 221 of the conversion definition 22, and the data at the position from the XML data 21. Get (element content). For example, from the designation “/ Product information / Product name” in Item 1, it can be seen that the upper hierarchy in XML data 21 represents the position of the item “Product name” in “Product”. Get “CELSIUS” which is the data of the position.

 [0041] Then, when converting to HTML data 23, the information of item definition 221 is reversed for each data and the position information of each element is reversed so that there is no problem in displaying as HTML data. Incorporated as conversion information. As a method for this, for example, by embedding it in an anchor (reference mark) tag which is one of HTML hyperlink functions, even if it is displayed on a Web browser, it does not affect the appearance.

 In the HTML data 23 that is the conversion result of FIG. 3, the start tag and the end tag that sandwiched the data (element content) are respectively replaced with anchors. For example, the start tag 221 force anchor 231 for the data (element content) 222 is replaced with the anchor 233 and the small amount tag 213 is replaced before and after the data 232.

[0043] When such HTML data 23 data is displayed in a web browser, the tag is displayed. Therefore, the reverse conversion information embedded as an inserted anchor as shown in display image 24 is not displayed.

 [0044] In addition, an HTM including reverse conversion information converted from XML data 21 by such a method.

The L data 23 is obtained by using this inverse transformation information when performing this inverse transformation.

ML data 21 can be restored.

When performing reverse conversion to XML data 23, embedded reverse conversion information is extracted and converted to XML accordingly.

 For example, in Figure 3,

 <a name = "/ Product information / Price">

 ¥ 200,000

 <a name = "/ Product information / Price—e">

 The description part 234 is embedded as an anchor and reproduces the tag of the XML data 21 from the reverse conversion information.

 <Product information>

 <Price> 200,000 yen </ Price>

 </ Product Information>

 It can be converted into a description of XML data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation process at the time of conversion processing from XML data 21 to HTML data 23 performed by the conversion processing unit 11.

 In the following explanation, the operation performed by the conversion processing unit is shown as an example in which the XML data 21 to be converted shown in FIG. 3 is converted using the conversion definition 22 and the HTML data 23 is obtained as the conversion result. Will be explained.

[0047] When processing is started in the figure, first, the XML data 21 to be converted and the conversion definition 22 are read into the memory, and then the conversion definition 22 is analyzed as step S1, and the item name table is stored in the memory. Is generated.

[0048] Fig. 5 (a) shows an example of the item name table. The item name table in the figure shows the relationship between each item and the position of the element in the XML data 21 to which the item corresponds. This item name table is generated from the item definition 221 of the conversion definition 22. [0049] Next, in step S2, the conversion processing unit 11 analyzes the XML data 21 that is the conversion source, and expands the XML memory structure indicating the tree structure on the memory.

 Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram of this XML memory structure.

[0050] In the figure, the XML memory structure is composed of a tag name portion 61 and a tag content portion 62. The tag name portion indicates the hierarchical position of each data (element content) by a tag name. 6

2 shows the data (element content) itself.

[0051] The conversion processing unit 11 uses the item name table generated in step S1 as step S3, and step S3.

The item value table is generated from the XML memory structure generated in step 2 as step S3.

 Figure 5 (b) shows an example of the item value table.

[0052] This item value table shows the relationship between each item in the item name table and the data (element content) in XML data 21. In the example in the figure, item 1 is CELCIUS, item 2 is T1234, item 3 indicates 200,000 yen.

Next, the conversion processing unit 11 expands the HTML style specification 222 part of the conversion definition 22 in the memory as step S4.

 Figure 5 (c) shows an example of the HTML style specification 222 expanded on this memory. This HT

ML style specification 222 becomes the template of converted HTML data 23.

[0054] Then, the conversion processing unit 11 executes the HTM expanded on the memory in step S4 as step S5.

Extract all character strings “$ item + number” ($ item1, $ item2, ...) from L style specification

In step S6, the item name corresponding to the extracted character string and the item value corresponding to the item name are acquired from the item name table and the item value table, and in step S7, the position information of the item name is set to HT.

The ML anchor tag's "name" attribute and the item value sandwiched between the tags are the tag contents.

Replace with character string in TML style specification.

[0055] Fig. 5 (d) shows an example of an HTML style with this replacement.

 Fig. 5 (d) shows the item 1 part replaced. In the description part 51, the "product information / product name" which is the position information of the item 1 becomes the "name" attribute 52 of the anchor tag. Cage

The CELCIUS force anchor tag, which is the item value of item 1, is described as tag contents 53 sandwiched between the start tag and end tag of the anchor tag.

[0056] After such replacement, the conversion processing unit 11 performs step S8 as shown in FIG. The HTML style text after such replacement is output as HTML data 23 of the conversion result, and this process ends.

As described above, in the data conversion by the structured data conversion apparatus according to the present embodiment, the reverse conversion information, which is information necessary for the reverse conversion of the conversion source data, can be included in the conversion result. In addition, the converted data in which the reverse conversion information is embedded does not display the reverse conversion information even if it is displayed by the Web browser.

[0058] The information embedded in the HTML data as the reverse conversion information is the tag position information and the like, so the data size can be reduced compared to the case where the original XML data is embedded as it is.

 FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation process at the time of reverse conversion processing from HTML data 23 to XML data 21 performed by the reverse conversion processing unit 12.

 In the following description, the reverse conversion processing unit 12 is taken as an example in which the HTML data 23 converted by the structured data conversion apparatus of this embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is reversely converted to obtain the XML data 21 as a conversion result. The operation performed by is described.

 [0060] When the processing is started in FIG. 7, the inverse transform processing unit 12 first reads out the HTML data 23 to be processed from the memory, analyzes the HTML data 23 as step S11, and determines the anchor tag portion. Extract all.

[0061] Next inverse conversion unit 12 as the step S 12 determines the anchor has become "n ame" trailing force attribute part of the string S "_ _e" anchor extracted in step S 11, also In step S13, the string power of the "name" attribute part paired with the anchor obtained in step S12. The character excluding "_e" from the end of the "name" attribute part of the anchor in step S12 Get the column anchor. In step S14, the inverse conversion processing unit 12 acquires a character string surrounded by the pair of anchors acquired in step S12 and step S13.

[0062] Next, the inverse transformation portion 12 decomposes the character string of the "name" attribute of the anchor anchor obtained in step S12 or S13 as step S15, with "/" as a delimiter. The tag name part 61 of the memory structure of the XML data as shown in 6 is generated. Further, in step S16, the inverse conversion unit 12 generates a tag content portion 62 in addition to the memory structure of the XML data in FIG. 6 as an element content including the character string surrounded by the anchor acquired in step S14. [0063] The memory structure of the XML data generated in this way is finally converted into XML data in step S17 for the reverse conversion, and this is output as an XML file, and this process is terminated.

 [0064] As described above, the structured data conversion apparatus according to the present embodiment can reproduce the original XML data by re-converting the HTML data converted from the XML data.

 Next, conversion and reverse conversion in the case where the conversion source data to be converted has a repetitive portion such as a table or list will be described.

 For example, XML often includes a structure with repeated data having the same structure as its characteristics.

 [0066] When XML data having these repeating structures is expressed in HTML, it is often expressed in a table format (T ABLE tag) or a list format (UL tag).

 Since the number of repeated structures tends to be large, adding inverse transformation information to all items as described above increases the size. In this embodiment, when converting to an HTML table format or the like when having such a repeating structure, the entire table (or list) (the entire repeating structure) can be embedded more efficiently so that reverse conversion information can be embedded. On the other hand, it carries a set of inverse transformation information.

 [0067] With this, in the conversion by the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment, when the conversion target has a repeated portion, the reverse conversion information carried during conversion can be made more compact.

 FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of conversion by the structured data conversion device when the conversion source structured document has a repetitive structure.

 The structured data converter analyzes the source structured document 81, and if there is a repeating structure such as a table, the reverse conversion information for these is put together into a structured document 82 that is the conversion result. To do.

[0069] When the converted structure document 82 is inversely converted, the original structure is obtained by using the inversely converted information that is efficiently incorporated into the repeated structure such as a table. Generate a document 81. FIG. 9 shows an example of conversion when the conversion source structured document includes a repetitive structure. This figure also shows an example of conversion from XML data to HTML data, as in Figure 3.

 In the figure, the XML data 91 which is the structure document of the conversion source is converted into HTML data 93 using the conversion definition 92 defined by the user.

 [0071] The XML data 91 in FIG. 9 has a repeating structure 911 of type name>, name>, and price> parts, and conversion definition 92 defines these as items in item definition 921. In addition, HTML style specification 922 defines "MALE-TABLE" and conversion to a table format. The “record” part of 921 of the item definition indicates the part that becomes the record of the table, and “MALE—TABLE” of the HTML style specification 922 is a tabular style with the items as arguments as rows. It shows that there is.

 When the conversion processing unit 11 converts the XML data 91 based on the conversion definition 92, HTML data 93 is obtained as a conversion result.

 This HTML data 93 shows a table having the element contents of <type name>, <name>, and <price> in XML data 91 as defined in the conversion definition 92. Also, in this HTML data 93, reverse conversion information 931 and 932 are embedded as anchors at the beginning and end of the table.

 [0073] In this way, when the conversion source structured document has a repetitive structure, it is possible to efficiently embed the reverse conversion information used for the reverse conversion and embed it in the structured document of the conversion result.

 The display result 94 is the HTML data 93 that is the conversion result displayed by the Web browser. However, since the reverse conversion information is embedded as an anchor, there is no influence on the display.

 [0074] FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing when the conversion source structured document has a repetitive format as described above, and this is converted to a tabular structured document.

In the following explanation, the operation performed by the conversion processing unit is shown by taking as an example the case of converting the XML data 91 to be converted shown in FIG. 9 using the conversion definition 92 and obtaining the HTML data 93 as the conversion result. Will be explained. [0075] When the processing is started in the figure, first, the XML data 91 to be converted and the conversion definition 92 are read into the memory, then the conversion definition 92 is analyzed as step S21, and the item name table is stored in the memory. And item table values are generated. This process is the same as steps Sl and S2 in Fig. 4.

 FIG. 11A shows an item name table generated at this time, and FIG. 11B shows an example of the item table value. The item name table in FIG. 6A shows the relationship between each item and the position of the element in the XML data 91 to which the item corresponds. This item name table is generated from the item definition 291 of the conversion definition 92.

 [0077] When comparing the item name table in Fig. 11 (a) with the item name table in Fig. 5 (a), the item name table in Fig. 11 (a) includes "Record" as an item in addition to items 1 to 3. Yes.

 Compared with the target value of the item in Fig. 5 (b), the item table value in Fig. 11 (b) has a repetitive structure in the source XML data 91, so multiple items correspond to one item. ing.

[0078] Next, the conversion processing unit 11 specifies the HTML style in the conversion definition 92 as step S22.

The 922 is expanded on the memory.

 Figure 11 (c) shows an example of HTML style specification 922 expanded on this memory. This H

The TML style specification 922 becomes a template for the HTML data 93 after conversion. In the figure, M

AKE— TABLE ($ item 1, $ item 2, $ item 3) and each item 1 defined in the item value table

~ It is specified that HTML data 93 is formed in a table format with the data of item 3 as rows.

 [0079] In step S23, the conversion processing unit 11 performs the character 歹 $ item + number ”($ item1, $ item2, which is an argument of“ MAKE_TABLE (····)) ”specified in the HTML style expanded in memory. ····) are extracted, and in step S24, the item name corresponding to the extracted character string and the item value corresponding to the item name are obtained from the item name table and the item value table.

 [0080] Next, the conversion processing unit 11 generates the character string of the "name" attribute of the HTML anchor tag in step S25 as the position information of the "record" of the item name 92 ("/ product name / product" in Fig. 9) To do.

FIG. 11 (d) shows an example of the anchor tag generated in step S25. In the figure, 111 represents the start tag, and is loaded at the start position of the table part of the converted HTML data 91. . In addition, 112 in the figure corresponds to the end tag and is loaded at the end position of the table portion of the HTML data 91.

 [0082] Next, in step S26, the conversion processing unit 11 starts from “s_rowl = header” of the anchor 111, and selects the type name that is the element name of the lower element of the product list> <product >>, name>, and Create an HTML description so that <price> comes as the header in the first row of the table. Then, in step S27, in the order specified in “MAKE_TABLE” of HTML style specification 921, the item value corresponding to the item name is displayed in the portion corresponding to the second row of the table of the HTML description created in step S26. Create an HTML description.

 [0083] FIG. 11 (e) shows the HTML description created in steps S26 and S27.

 In the figure, 113 partial force corresponds to the header portion of the first row of the table created in step S26, and 114 portion corresponds to the second and subsequent portions of the table.

 [0084] After creating such an HTML description in the memory, the conversion processing unit 11 performs step S28 as the first part of the HTML description in Fig. 11 (e) (immediately after the <table> tag in Fig. 11 (e)). The start tag 1 11 anchor is added to the final part (Fig. 11 (e) / immediately before the table> tag), and the end tag 112 anchor is added. This HTML description is specified in the HTML style specification 922 "MAKE— TABL E (· · ·) "Replace with part. In step S29, the replacement result is output to a file as HTML data 93, which is the conversion result, and this process ends.

 In this way, in the data conversion by the structured data conversion apparatus according to the present embodiment, the reverse conversion information is efficiently converted so that the converted data does not become large even if the conversion source structured document has a repeated structure. You can do embedded conversions.

 Next, the inverse conversion process of the structure document converted by the process of FIG. 10 will be described.

 FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a process in the case where the reverse conversion processing unit 12 performs reverse conversion on the structured document converted in the table format by the structured data conversion apparatus of this embodiment.

[0087] In the following description, an example in which the HTML data 93 converted by the conversion processing unit 11 shown in FIG. The operation performed will be described. [0088] When the processing is started in FIG. 12, the inverse conversion processing unit 12 reads the HTML data 93 to be processed into the memory, analyzes the HTML data 93 as step S31, and extracts all the anchor tag portions. .

[0089] Next inverse conversion unit 12 as step S32 acquires an anchor that is the "n ame" trailing force attribute part of the string S "_ _e" anchor extracted in step S31. Then, as step S33, an anchor having a "name" attribute of an anchor in which "s_row '" follows the character string obtained by removing "_e" at the end from the character string of the "name" attribute part of the anchor acquired in step S32. In step S34, the inverse conversion processing unit 12 acquires an HTML description that is a character string surrounded by the anchors acquired in steps S32 and S33.

 [0090] Next, in step S35, the inverse transformation processing unit 12 obtains a number between "s-row" and "= header" in the character string portion of the "name" attribute portion of the anchor acquired in step S33. . In this example, the character string of the “name” attribute is “product list / product—s—rowl = header”, so this number is “1”.

 [0091] Next, in step S36, the inverse transformation processing unit 12 sets the item (td> tag) for the row in the lower layer of the table> tag (tr> tag part) corresponding to the number acquired in step S35. The value of is extracted as an XML tag value. In this example, the XML tag type name, <name>, and price are extracted in this step.

 [0092] Next, in step S37, the inverse transformation processing unit 12 does not correspond to the number acquired in step S35 (in this example, it corresponds to the second and subsequent rows of the table) <table> lower layer of the tag For the line (<tr> tag part), the value of the item (<td> tag) is extracted as the XML tag value.

 [0093] Then, as step S38, XML data is generated from the "name" attribute part of the anchor extracted in steps S33, S36, and S37, the XML tag name, and the XML tag value, and this is converted into XML as a result of reverse conversion. Output as a file and end this process.

 As described above, in the present embodiment, a structured document having an original repetitive structure can be reproduced even if inverse transformation is performed on a structured document including a tabular format.

In the above description, a structured document with a repetitive structure has been converted to a tabular structured document. However, when converted to a list structured document (<ul> for HTML) instead of a tabular format. However, the reverse conversion information can be loaded in the same way, The original structured document can be reproduced.

Next, the partial reverse conversion process performed by the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13 will be described.

 This partial reverse conversion process is to reverse-convert a part of the conversion result converted by the conversion processing unit 11.

 [0096] In the partial reverse conversion process, only a specific part is extracted from the HTML data of the conversion result, and is converted back to XML data. This partial reverse conversion processing is performed by reversely converting only a specific part from the HTML data converted by the structured data conversion apparatus of this embodiment, and for example, HTML data of a page displaying product information. It can be used when you want to obtain only summary information as XML data, excluding product specification details.

 FIG. 13 shows this partial inverse transform process.

 As described above, the conversion processing unit 11 performs a conversion process on the conversion source structure document 131 based on the conversion definition 132 and generates a conversion result 133.

 [0098] In the above description, the structured document of the conversion result 133 is inversely converted to generate the original structured document 131. However, in the partial reverse conversion process, the entire structured document 133 is inversely converted. Instead, the user designates a part by the extracted part designation file 134, extracts only the designated part, and performs reverse conversion.

 For example, in FIG. 13, when “Z product information Z product name” is specified by the extracted part specification file 134, the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13 corresponds to the hierarchical position “Z product information Z product name”. The part is extracted and reversely converted, and the element part specified by the extracted part specifying file 134 is output as the partial XML data 135 which is the reverse conversion result.

 FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the partial reverse conversion process performed by the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13.

 When the process is started in the figure, the partial inverse transform processing unit 13 first activates the inverse transform processing unit 12 as step S41.

Next, the partial inverse transform processing unit 13 determines whether or not the extracted partial file 134 in which the extracted part is designated by the user exists in step S42. And as a result, extraction If partial file 134 does not exist (step S42, No), normal reverse conversion is performed instead of partial reverse conversion, so the reverse conversion processing unit 12 process started in step S41 is passed as step S43, and partial reverse conversion processing is performed. Unit 13 ends the process. At this time, the inverse conversion processing unit that has been passed the process starts the process from step S11 of FIG. 7 described above, and performs the inverse conversion process.

[0102] In step S42, if the extracted partial file 134 exists (step S42, Yes), the location where partial extraction is to be performed is specified by the user. Therefore, in step S44, the extracted partial file 134 is stored in the memory. The character string of the extraction part specification specified in this extraction part file 134 is acquired.

 [0103] Then, the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13 selects an anchor having the same character string as the extracted part designation character string specified in the extraction part file 134 in the "name" attribute as the conversion result in step S45. Extract from some HTML data 133.

 Then, the process is passed to the inverse transformation processing unit 12 together with the anchor extracted in step S45, and the partial inverse transformation processing unit 13 ends the process. Then, the inverse transformation processing unit 12 that has passed the processing uses the anchor received from the partial inverse transformation processing unit 13 to perform the processing after step S12 in FIG. 7 described above, and is generated as a result. Output XML partial file as reverse transformation result.

 As described above, in the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment, when the converted HTML data is reversely converted back to XML data, only the data designated by the user can be reversely converted.

 Next, the search process performed by the search processing unit 14 will be described.

 In the structured data conversion apparatus according to the present embodiment, the same search processing as XML data can be performed on the HTML data that is the conversion result.

[0107] Normally, HTML data is a language specialized for display. Internal data has only information about the display form, and the contents cannot be searched. However, the HTML data converted by the structured data conversion apparatus of the present embodiment includes reverse conversion information therein, and the internal data can be searched using this reverse conversion information. FIGS. 15 (a) and 15 (b) are explanatory diagrams of search processing of the present embodiment.

 Normally, in HTML data, as shown in (a) in the figure, it is unclear what the internal data (such as “1 million yen” in the figure) indicates, and this internal data is the data for the budget. However, it is not possible to perform a semantic search on this HTML data, such as searching for the contents of data such as "Budget".

 [0109] On the other hand, the HTML data 152 converted by the structured data conversion apparatus of this embodiment shown in (b) of the figure has the inverse conversion information embedded as an anchor in association with the internal data. The reverse conversion information includes the element name of the source XML data.

[0110] For example, if you want to search the budget for the first half of fiscal 2004 against HTML data 152, as shown in search example 153, if you enter "2004 first half" and 'budget "as the search keyword 156, When the search processing unit 14 searches the reverse conversion information in the anchor of the HTML data 152 and finds the same character string 154a, 154b as the search keyword 156, the corresponding internal data 155 (start including the grinder The tag's “name” attribute string power S ”—data sandwiched between end tags ending with“ _e ”) is output as search result 157.

 [0111] In the case of Fig. 15, if the search keyword is the string "2004 1st half" but 'budget "for HTML data 152, the reverse conversion information" / budget / 2004 1st budget "in the anchor is found. The internal data corresponding to the anchor “1 million yen” is obtained as the search result 1 57.

 FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the search process performed by the search processing unit 14. When the process of FIG. 16 is started, the search processing unit 14 first sends a search keyword as a search condition to the user in step S51. Let them enter.

[0113] Next, the search processing unit 14 reads out the HTML data 133 to be searched from the memory, and in step S52, selects all the anchor names (character strings of the "name" attribute) corresponding to the reverse conversion information from the HTML data 133. Extract.

[0114] Then, the search processing unit 14 matches the search keyword input by the user in step S51 against the plurality of anchor names extracted in step S52, and obtains the character string of the search keyword. Extract what it contains.

 [0115] As a result, if there is an anchor name including the search keyword character string (step S54, Yes), as step S56, an anchor including the corresponding anchor name and an anchor corresponding to the anchor (the same anchor name + The character string included between "_e" and the anchor name is output as a search result, and this process ends.

 In step S54, if there is no anchor name including the character string of the search keyword (step S54, No), “not applicable” is output as the search result as step S55, and the process is terminated.

 [0117] In this way, the HTML data converted by the structured data conversion apparatus in the present embodiment can be searched in the same manner as the conversion source XML data.

 In the above example, the power of the search process is taken as an example. The HTML data, which is the conversion result converted by the structured data conversion apparatus in this embodiment, is used for data extraction, calculation processing, unique processing, etc. In general, XML data can be processed in the same way.

 [0118] Also, in the above description, the reverse conversion information is included in the HTML data of the conversion result as an anchor tag. However, when the HTML data is displayed by the Web browser, the reverse conversion information embedded is displayed. If not, it may be carried in other ways.

 [0119] Fig. 17 is a diagram showing an example of the case where reverse conversion information is embedded in an HTML comment tag.

 In the figure, when converting the conversion source XML data 171 to the XML data 173 based on the conversion definition 172, the reverse conversion information to be embedded is embedded as comments 175-1 to 175-6. In this case, the reverse conversion information is carried as a comment text sandwiched between "<!-" Do '->> "in the comment tag 175.

[0120] Since this comment 175 is skipped by the Web browser, even if the comment 175 is inserted, the display result 174 is not affected at all.

FIG. 18 shows a software processing method for the conversion processing unit 11, the inverse conversion processing unit 12, the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13, and the search processing unit 14, which are components of the structured data conversion apparatus according to this embodiment. The computer system on which these components are realized. FIG.

 [0121] The computer shown in the figure includes a CPU 181, a main storage device 182, an auxiliary storage device 183 such as a hard disk, an input / output device (I / O) 184 such as a display and a keyboard, a network connection device 185 such as a modem, a disk, A medium reading device 186 that reads out stored contents from a portable storage medium such as a magnetic tape is provided, and these are connected to each other via a bus 187.

 In the computer shown in FIG. 12, the medium reading device 186 reads out programs and data stored in a storage medium 188 such as a magnetic tape, a flexible disk, a CD-ROM, and an MO, and stores them in the main storage device 182 or auxiliary storage. Download to device 183. Based on this program and data, the CPU 181 implements the functions of the conversion processing unit 11, the inverse conversion processing unit 12, the partial reverse conversion processing unit 13, and the search processing unit 14 described above in software.

 [0123] In the computer system of Fig. 18, application software may be exchanged using a storage medium 187 such as a flexible disk. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to a structured data conversion apparatus and conversion method, and when used by a computer, a computer-readable storage medium for causing a computer to perform the functions of the above-described embodiments of the present invention. It can also be configured as.

 [0124] In this case, the "storage medium" is a medium drive such as a CD-ROM, flexible disk (or MO, DVD, removable hard disk, etc.) as shown in FIG. A portable storage medium 196 that can be attached to and detached from the device 197, a storage unit (database, etc.) 192 in an external device (server, etc.) transmitted via the network line 193, or a memory (main unit 194) of the information processing device 191 ( RAM, hard disk, etc.) 195 etc. are included. The programs stored in the portable storage medium 196 and the storage unit (database or the like) 192 are loaded into a memory (RAM or hard disk or the like) 195 in the main body 194 and executed.

[0125] In addition to the above-mentioned examples of storage media such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, for example, Blu-ray Disc (registered trademark) and AOD (Advanced Optical Disc) ) And other next-generation optical disk storage media using a blue laser It is also possible to implement the present invention using various large-capacity storage media that will be developed in the future, such as HD_DVD9 using the same or Blue Laser DVD using a blue-violet laser.

[0126] According to the present invention, when converting a structured document to another data structure, a conversion destination design (data structure) is created separately, and the design is converted with little work. It can be used for This makes it possible to manage and reuse data and design separately.

 In the above example, the case where the XML document and the HTML document are mutually converted is taken as an example. However, the conversion by the document conversion utilization system in the present embodiment is not limited to this. From the SGML document to the HTML document You can also convert between other structured documents, such as converting to.

Claims

The scope of the claims  [1] A structured data conversion device for converting first structured data into second structured data written in a language different from the first structured data,  Data that is deleted when the first structured data is converted to the second structured data, and that is necessary when the converted second structured data is converted back to the first structured data Is obtained from the first structured data as inverse transformation information,  An inverse transformation information storage unit that embeds the inverse transformation information in the second structured data when the first structured data is transformed into the second structured data;  A structured data conversion apparatus comprising: [2] The image processing apparatus further includes an inverse conversion unit that inversely converts the second structured data into the first structured data using the inverse transformation information carried in the second structured data. The structured data conversion device according to claim 1, wherein: [3] The reverse conversion information storage unit includes the reverse conversion information in a form that does not affect the appearance when the second structured data after conversion is displayed on a Web browser. The structured data conversion device according to claim 1. [4] The request is characterized in that the second structured data is data described in HTML, and the reverse conversion information storage unit embeds the reverse conversion information in an HTML anchor tag. Item 4. The structured data converter according to item 3. [5] The second structured data is data described in HTML, and the reverse conversion information storage unit embeds the reverse conversion information in an HTML comment tag. Structured data conversion device described in 1. [6] The reverse conversion information generation unit extracts the reverse conversion information based on a conversion definition including information indicating a position in a hierarchical structure of an element in the first structured data. The structured data conversion device according to claim 1. [7] The inverse transformation information generation unit generates the inverse transformation information for the entire repetitive structure when the first structure data includes a repetitive structure, and the inverse transformation information storage unit It is characterized by loading information corresponding to the entire repetitive structure The structured data conversion device according to claim 1. [8] When the first structured data includes a repeated structure, the first structured data is converted into a table when the first structured data is converted into the second structured data. The structured data conversion device according to claim 1. [9] The method according to claim 1, further comprising a partial reverse conversion unit that reversely converts a part of the first structured data from the second structured data based on an instruction from a user. Structured data converter described in 1. 10. The search unit according to claim 1, further comprising a search unit that searches the second structured data converted from the first structured data based on a search condition of user power. Structured data converter.  [11] The structure according to [1], wherein the inverse transformation information is information required at a minimum when inversely transforming the second structured data into the first structured data Data conversion device.  12. The structured data according to claim 11, wherein the inverse transformation information is information indicating a tag name of the tag in the first structure data and a correspondence relationship between the tag and the element content. Conversion device.  13. The first structured data according to claim 1, wherein the first structured data is data described in XML, and the second structured data is data described in HTML. Structured data converter.  [14] A structured data conversion method for converting first structured data into second structured data written in a language different from the first structured data,  Read the structured data to be converted from memory,  It is deleted when converting the first structured data into the second structured data, and is necessary when converting the converted second structured data back into the first structured data. The first structured data force is extracted as inverse transformation information,  When converting the first structured data into the second structured data, the inverse transformation information is embedded in the second structured data. A structured data conversion method characterized by the above. When executed on a computer that converts the first structured data into second structured data written in a language different from the first structured data,  Read the structured data to be converted from memory,  It is deleted when converting the first structured data into the second structured data, and is necessary when converting the converted second structured data back into the first structured data. The first structured data force is extracted as inverse transformation information,  When converting the first structured data into the second structured data, the inverse transformation information is embedded in the second structured data.  A portable storage medium readable by the computer storing a program for causing the computer to execute the above.